Recruitment
by PinkFan-Gurl
Summary: Haru notices that a strange man takes an interest in him during swim practices. One day, he decides to confront the dark haired man only to find out that he is a recruiter for ice skaters named Yuuri.


Haru surfaced from the water and his eyes immediately fell on the dark haired man sitting in the bleachers. He was here again.

Now in his Sophomore year of college, Haru had become the highlight of his college's swim team; he had easily crushed seventeen of the previous records during his Freshmen alone, but Makoto hadn't even blinked an eye when he heard the news.

The dark haired man had started showing up to practices a little over three weeks ago. Originally Haru had paid no mind to him since it wasn't unusual for scouts and the likes to sit in on meets, but his constant reappearances were odd. The other odd thing was that his interest seemed to focus on Haru alone.

Staying submerged, Haru glanced at the clock. Practice was basically over and he was due to meet Makoto in an hour after his class ended. But still, Haru was getting fed up with this random person thinking that he could just follow Haru around like a second shadow.

Haru swam another lap and by the time he finished, the team captain was calling the practice quits. "Good job today, Nanase," he complimented as Haru climbed out of the pool.

Haru nodded slightly, grabbing his towel from the bench and draping it across his head. Most people were filtering out of the pool room to the locker rooms, but just as he had expected, the mystery person was still sitting in the corner of the bleachers.

Huffing slightly, Haru dropped his towel around his neck as he shot the person watching him a look. "So are you ever going to tell me what you want or are you just going to keep stalking me?"

The mystery person hopped down from the bleachers and landed in front of Haru. "I一I'm so sorry," he exclaimed, face blooming into a bright pink. Haru did a double take, slightly taken back. "I'm new to this whole 'scouting' thing," the stranger's words rushed out in a jumbled mess, "and I didn't know how to approach you! So I've kind of been watching you the last few days in hopes I could build up enough courage to talk to you!"

Haru blinked as the stranger fidgeted with his fingers. "You're nervous to talk to me?" Haru deadpanned.

"Only because you're so impressive!" the black haired man beamed. "I'm not very knowledgeable in swimming, but you definitely are gifted."

"If you're not knowledgeable in swimming, then why are you scouting for it?"

The man scratched his head nervously. "Because I, um, _scout for ice skating_ ," the last part of his sentence deflated until it was a whisper, but Haru still caught it.

"Not interested." He turned on his heel, but he could already hear the ice skate scout jogging after him.

"Wait, Mr. Nanase!" He skidded in front of Haru, stopping the swimmer in his tracks. "My name is Yuuri Katsuki-Nikiforov and alongside my husband Victor, I help coach young skaters."

"Well, I'm not a skater." Haru stepped around Yuuri, hoping that he would take the hint and leave him alone but he followed him into the locker room.

"I know that it's not your thing," Yuuri conceded, "but with a little bit of training I know that you could be one of the best skaters out there! You have just the right body type and your form is perfect"一Yuuri's jaw dropped as Haru slipped his shorts on over his wet swimsuit一 "what are you doing?" he exclaimed.

Haru shrugged, expressionless as ever, and pulled his shirt over his head and duffel bag in hand. "Sorry, man. I'm a swimmer. I have what you would call a relationship with the water and I can't disrespect that relationship."

Yuuri looked like he was fishing around in his head for the right word, but his dropped jaw and quirked eyebrows gave away his confusion. Haru grinned slightly. "Besides," he added, "my coach would flip if I quit swimming."

Yuuri sighed, nodding slowly. "That I can at least understand." He laughed slightly. Haru wrinkled his nose as Yuuri's glasses reflected light into his eyes. "I quit on my coach once and it was not the most pleasant experience."

Haru blinked, wanting nothing more than to get out of this inconvenient conversation and out onto the curb to wait for Makoto to pick him up. "I'm going to go now."

Once again, Haru barely made it out of the locker room when Yuuri skipped after him yelling, "I'll wait with you! My ride should be here soon and then I'll be out of your hair."

Haru glanced at Yuuri as they came to a halt at the curb designated for drop offs. "You're not going to keep showing up to my practices are you?"

Yuuri shook his head with a small, sad smile. "No, I won't." He looked to Haru hopefully. "Unless you think you might change your mind?"

"No way."

"Ah, that's what I thought."

They waited together in silence for several minutes. They were about to break a four minute record when Yuuri ruined it by saying, "So, tell me about your coach."

Haru with-held an exasperated sigh. This guy obviously didn't get the hint that Haru wasn't much of a talker. "What do you want to know?"

Yuuri shrugged, taking a seat on the curb. Haru followed suit. "Anything, I guess," Yuuri said, putting his hand in his palms, "you guys seemed really close so I was just wondering how far back you guys go."

Haru thought back to Coach Sasabe; he had been swimming with Sasabe as his main coach since he was in elementary school, but he hadn't seen him since his last trip back home with Makoto. Sasabe certainly hadn't been up to university to visit Haru, so how would this Yuuri know about him?

Then again, this guy seemed to have done at least a little bit of background so maybe he had knowledge about Haru's swimming career before hand. "I've known him since I was a little kid if that means anything to you," he finally decided to say.

"That's great!" Yuuri enthused. "I met my coach a couple of years ago after he saw an embarrassing video of me."

Haru hoped to God Makoto would hurry up. His introverted side was starting to get fed up. "Wow."

"Honestly, I'm a little jealous of you," Yuuri admitted. "I wish I could have gotten to know Victor when we were younger; so you should spend as much time with your coach一sorry I don't know his name一as much as you can! Treasure it."

Haru scooted to the left a little bit. "What are you trying to tell me, man?"

Yuuri pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His face was starting to deepen in color. "Aren't you and your coach lovers?" he asked weakly.

Haru wrinkled his nose in disgust. He might be appreciative of Coach Sasabe, but there was no way that he was looking for a romantic relationship in the older man. Not to mention he was pretty sure Sasabe and Miss A. were dating now anyways. "I don't know where you're getting your facts from, dude, but that is completely off-base."

Yuuri blushed furiously and tried to cover his face with his hands. "I-I-I am so sorry! It's just that when I saw you guys talking the other day, you looked like you belonged together! I could have sworn that you had the same look that I have when I look at Victor, but I...must have been mistaken." He bowed. "Please forgive me."

A car pulled into the parking lot that Haru recognized as Makoto's. "Don't worry about it," he said, standing up. "This is my ride. Good talking to ya, man. Good luck with the rest of your ice skating recruitment."

"Hey, Haru!" Makoto smiled out of his rolled down window. "How was practice?"

"It was一"

"OH MY GOD IT'S YOU!"

Haru whipped around to see Yuuri on his feet and stabbing a finger at Makoto. Makoto smiled nervously. Haru groaned, "Now what is it, Yuuri?"

"T-that's your coach!" Yuuri looked like he was just told that he won the lottery only for it to be ripped away from him. "He's the one I saw you with when you were at the pool! He was giving you pointers on your freestyle!"

"Makoto?" Haru jerked his thumb in Makoto's direction. "Makoto's not my coach. My coach is still back in Iwatobi."

Yuri still looked like he was scandalized. "T-then, who's he?" He pointed weakly at Makoto again.

"He's my boyfriend." Haru left it at that, leaving Yuuri to sit back on the ground looking flabbergasted. Makoto was laughing when Haru chucked his bag into the back seat and settled into the front. "What are you laughing about?"

Makoto put the car in drive and pulled away from the sidewalk. "I'm not really sure what just happened, but is it a good idea to leave him there like that?"

As they pulled out onto the main road, Haru noticed a silver car pull into the lot. The driver had short, silver hair and Haru instantly made a connection. "He'll be fine. I'm pretty sure the guy who just pulled in was Victor."

Makoto shot him a quizzical grin. "Who's that?"

Haru shrugged. "Yuuri's husband." Makoto blushed, which gave Haru an odd sense of satisfaction. "Are we still on for dinner, right?"

Makoto's blush lost its vibrancy. "Of course we are一as soon as you change out of your bathing suit. You're getting my seats wet again, Haru."


End file.
